Israeli warplanes target missile cache

Updated
May 06, 2013 13:46:00

The Syrian government is warning today that the weekend airstrikes on its capital have intensified the dangers of a wider regional conflict. The air strikes by Israeli warplanes hit three military sites and reportedly targeted weapons bound for the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

OMRAN AL ZOUBI (translated): "The government has the right to protect the state and the people from any attack, whether internal or external by all means."

WILL OCKENDEN: But analysts say Syria is unlikely or unable to retaliate.

Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says if Syria was to strike back, the Assad regime wouldn't be around for long.

ANDREW TABLER: It also exposes how weak militarily they are Vis-vis Israel and probably most other countries and the only people that they're really good at pounding on are their own people. And have been for 40 years.

So it exposes a lot with them, I know a lot of people in the region are looking at the current situation and wincing. This conflict is going to be going on for some time and I think you know, the concerns over chemical weapons, over the transfer to surface-to-surface missiles, these kind of things aren't going to go away and these are the kind of things that can cause the rest of the region to get sucked into a conflict in Syria.

WILL OCKENDEN: The air strikes are an escalation in Israel's earlier involvement in Syria's two-year-old bloody civil war. In January, Israel bombed a convoy in Syria, amid concerns it was carrying weapons heading for Hezbollah - the anti Israeli military group in Lebanon, which remains a staunch ally of the Assad regime.

Israel has long warned it is prepared to take action if it believes advance weapons are likely to reach group such as Hezbollah.

Israeli Tourism Minister Uzi Landau.

UZI LANDAU (translated): The policy of the State of Israel, that a certain kind of weapon will not reach the hands of terrorists, is an important policy, essential, and it must be pursued as the prime minister has said.

WILL OCKENDEN: Both America and the United Kingdom have backed Israel's move but the crisis has also put pressure on US president Barack Obama. US Republican senator John McCain says the Assad regime has crossed another line by providing weapons to Hezbollah. Other law makers have urged the US to provide intelligence and training to Syrian rebel forces.

Barack Obama says it's unlikely that US troops will be sent in, but other options are under review.

BARACK OBAMA: I don't take any options of the table as commander and chief, circumstances can change, you never know what contingencies you have to deal with. But what I do know is that I cannot see a scenario right now in which American boots in the ground would make any sense.

WILL OCKENDEN: Meanwhile the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group opposed to the Assad regime, says Syrian rebels have taken control of large parts of a military airport in northern Syria.

The group says a Syrian government military commander was killed over the weekend during the fighting.